Problems with ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

[FireStormX86]

Was all excited to have all the parts for my new rig! About halfway through after the motherboards in we try connecting the PSU and it doesn't fit...My friend who was doing most the building said it was because it wasn't EPS12? He had an adapter that we used so I thought that would be ok. But then about halfway through the windows install it just dies and powers off, it did it multiple times, not at the same point of the install either. We checked the temperatures and its not that, so were 90% sure it would be the power supply. Anyone else have experience with this? Here is my rig:

MOTHERBOARD - ASUS "A8N-SLI Deluxe" nForce4 SLI Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 2.2 GHz, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Socket 939 Processor - Retail

VIDEO - 2X BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3/PCI-E/TV-Out/Dual-DVI (Retail Box) IN SLI

PRIMARY DRIVE - 2X Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only IN RAID-0

AUXILIARY DRIVE - Maxtor (6B300S0) DiamondMax Plus 10 300GB SATA 7200 RPM 16MB Cache

CASE - Lian-Li Silver ATX Full Tower Case, Model "PC-V2000A" -RETAIL

OPTICAL - NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive, Black, Model ND-3520A BK, OEM

PSU - Enermax Noisetaker 600Watt 'EG701P-VE SFMA' Retail

MEMORY - OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail


I guess I'm just going to send the PSU back for a refund and try to find another one locally since I don't really want to wait so long. Anyone know if CDW or any local stores sell high quality PSUs? It must work with PCI-E and be pretty high wattage. What kind has been tested to work with this kind of setup, anyone have personal expereince?

 

[orlenfrost]

wow Pretty nice rig you have going there. I hope you get it to work.

Does it post correctly?

When you say it powers off does it make a sound? Like a "click" when you normally shut it off, does the PSU make a sound?

Do you have both of the GPU's 6 pin connectors plugged in? And the extra 12 volt above the video card?
AND the four pin next to the CPU?

I ran my A8N-SLI for the first week off of a 380w Antec True Power PSU that had the 20 to 24 pin power adapter without any problems. That 600w Enermax is perfect for that setup. And typically a pretty high quality PSU. ARE YOU SURE THE POWER WENT OUT?

I would start by taking out the supplemental hard drive for now. I had some problems while installing windows on a MAXTOR 300 gig with the 16meg buffer in a raid set-up. Never sure if the drives were the culpret but I never did get windows to install...

Then I would check all the connections on the board to make sure you have everything plugged in where you think you do. Especially check that the SATA drives are in the right slots (use the book for reference.)

Then go through the bios and make sure your RAID is enabled and that on the "home page" that the sata drives are recognized.

And double check the dual gpu card on the MotherBoard to make sure you have the right option.


good luck

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Your power supply is your problem, it is a dual rail model with around 18a on each rail. These are not working well on this board, I know of at least a dozen people who have had the same problem. I hate to tell you, but the only solution is to change out the power supply for a single rail model with over 25a on the 12v rail

As stated in the ASUS manual when running 2 x 6800 you must have >25a on the 12v rail that supplies the motherboard. That PS only gives it 18a!

ASUS and others have really made a mess when they specified the ATX2.0 standard for this board. The ATX2.0 standard that includes dual rail PS's was developed years ago for multiprocessor servers, some power supply makers are even marketing dual rail PS's as "SLI ready". IMHO Asus should have made it very clear that if you were going to run dual graphics cards on this board that a dual rail PS was not appropriate. I have seen a lot of fine 550-700watt dual rail PS's from Enermax,OCZ,Seasonic,Antec etc... get RMA'd in the last few weeks. I have also seen several people who wont beleive that their expensive PS is the problem and RMA the board, only to get their replacement and have the same problems. One guy was on his third A8N-SLI before he swapped out the PS and eliminated his problems.

 

[pudds]

Ive been reading a post by one of the ocz support guys and he says that on the 600w powerstream with dual rails 18amps is supplied to the atx mobo connector and the other 18amps goes to the molex plugs and the +12v plug. According to him the motherbord is able to draw on all 36amps if needed. He says he doesn't know how other power supllies split the rails but thats how they do it.

 

[FireStormX86]

Alright...so it is the PSU then, can someone tell me a good one that has been tested to work with this board that is high wattage?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The OCZ guy is full of it. I know of 2 people who have RMA'd 600w powerstreams. And he is continuing the misconception that 2 rails @ 18a = total available amps of 36a. A dual rail PS is essentially two smaller PS's in one box, nothing in the box generates 36a. 2 x 18a = 18a not 36a.

Man I'm getting tired of posting this and half the people don't want to beleive it. I posted on one thread "Anybody sucessfully running 2 video cards and a dual rail PS post here". I got several "I heard" and "supposedly" or "the tech guy said", but not one person posted that they were sucessfully running two cards with a dual rail PS. And I personally know of 6 people who have RMA'd there dual rail PS's and their problems went away immediately.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Any quality PS with over 25a on the 12v will do fine.

Antec 480 or 550 true
OCZ modstreams
Enermax makes several
PC & C 510 SLI

to name a few

 

[century child]

I was running 2 6600GT's SLI (in addition to a Danger Den water pump + 2 optical and 2 Raptors + 3 120mm fans) without problems on a NeoPower which is dual rail. 6800GT's finally became available here so I switched to one of those and will buy a second in a couple months when my wallet recovers. Anyway, the single 6800GT is putting the hurt on my PSU now so I seriously doubt it can handle a second one. My 12V line is already at the lower 5% limit at idle. I guess the moral of the story is, anything above 6600GT's in SLI will likely require a single rail high-powered PSU.

 

[scruffles]

I have the Antec EPS12V true550w. It has 36 amps on the 12v if i recollect. Anyway, it's running great. Expensive ($114-Newegg.com), but will be a psu for the future, that's for sure.

 

[FireStormX86]

Thank you very much GuitaryDaddy, I appreciate your help and I'm sure you're quite sick of ignorant people who don't know what they're talking about, hell theres enough of them at tech support, we don't need more on the message boards! So I called around and this seems to be the best deal:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/produc...efault.aspx?EDC=376559

It's an Antec True550

Now on CDWs website you don't see if it has SATA or not, but on antecs website the true550 does:

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=20550

These are the same PSUs, right? And I noticed it only had 2 SATA connectors...can I get a splitter then cuz I have 3 sata devices currently.

 

[century child]

I think the general consensus is that the PC Power and Cooling 510 SLI is the best available. Another alternative I've heard good things about is this one: http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=17-104-125&depa=1

 

[Auxano]

"Anybody successfully running 2 video cards and a dual rail PS post here".

GuitarDaddy, I missed that post. Here is what I am running.

MOTHERBOARD - ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

MEMORY - OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 Dual (512MBx2)

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3200+

VIDEO - 2X BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC 256MB in SLI

PRIMARY DRIVES - 2X Seagate 160GB Barracuda 7200.7 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, In RAID-0

AUXILIARY DRIVE ? WD 120GB IDE 7200 RPM 8MB Cache

OPTICAL - NEC 16X Double Layer DVD, Model ND-3500

PSU - Enermax Noisetaker 600Watt 'EG701P-VE SFMA' Retail

This has been running for a couple of weeks so far. No hardware issues for me. I also changed out the chipset fan to a Zalman passive cooler.

I don?t know why, but I have not had any issues. I was going to go with the OCZ but I got a good deal on the Enermax. My 12V rail is very steady and the Enermax stays cool (warm) in tempature.

PS. Your early posts on A8N were very helpful to me as I got my rig going about a week or so after yours.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: FireStormX86
http://www.cdw.com/shop/produc...efault.aspx?EDC=376559

It's an Antec True550

Now on CDWs website you don't see if it has SATA or not, but on antecs website the true550 does:

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=20550

These are the same PSUs, right? And I noticed it only had 2 SATA connectors...can I get a splitter then cuz I have 3 sata devices currently.

Thats a good choice, thats the PS I'm using and its been trouble free for a month and a half so far.

I think you can get a molex to SATA adapter? I'm only running 2 SATA so I haven't had to deal with that.

The ones you've listed are two different PS's. The first one is the 20pin model that I'm using (works fine with no adapter, you just leave the four pins nearest the chipset fan open), the second one is the 24pin model. If I had known I was going to buy this board I would have gotten the 24pin model

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: Auxano

"Anybody successfully running 2 video cards and a dual rail PS post here".

GuitarDaddy, I missed that post. Here is what I am running.

MOTHERBOARD - ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

MEMORY - OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 Dual (512MBx2)

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3200+

VIDEO - 2X BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC 256MB in SLI

PRIMARY DRIVES - 2X Seagate 160GB Barracuda 7200.7 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, In RAID-0

AUXILIARY DRIVE ? WD 120GB IDE 7200 RPM 8MB Cache

OPTICAL - NEC 16X Double Layer DVD, Model ND-3500

PSU - Enermax Noisetaker 600Watt 'EG701P-VE SFMA' Retail

This has been running for a couple of weeks so far. No hardware issues for me. I also changed out the chipset fan to a Zalman passive cooler.

I don?t know why, but I have not had any issues. I was going to go with the OCZ but I got a good deal on the Enermax. My 12V rail is very steady and the Enermax stays cool (warm) in tempature.

PS. Your early posts on A8N were very helpful to me as I got my rig going about a week or so after yours.

Wow! Good to see its working for someone. I hope it continues to be no problem for you.

 

[alien42]

guitardaddy
have you seen this?

Support nVIDIA SLI Technology
+12V1 18A
+12V2 18A
+12Vtotal 34A

thought you would enjoy it, lol

also, what do you think about the agpb that fasteddie is running?

i think i am going to go ahead and get it, the two documented instances of multimeters used to test the rails showed they were stable and its less then half price of most comparible psus and the 12v should support 2 6800s without a problem.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: alien42
guitardaddy
have you seen this?

Support nVIDIA SLI Technology
+12V1 18A
+12V2 18A
+12Vtotal 34A

thought you would enjoy it, lol

also, what do you think about the agpb that fasteddie is running?

i think i am going to go ahead and get it, the two documented instances of multimeters used to test the rails showed they were stable and its less then half price of most comparible psus and the 12v should support 2 6800s without a problem.

Yeah, the specs look good. I don't know anything about the company. Fast Eddie doesn't seem to be having any problems. I,m sure it will work fine.

 

[imported_lamb2471]

I had all these same problems...went through 3 motherboards. I have a Silenx 450watt PSU...and apparently it isn't enough? Which seems insane to me. Anyway, I only have 1 6600GT , so I'm going to wait for some of the nforce4 ultra boards instead.

Still, this sucks.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy

Originally posted by: alien42
guitardaddy
have you seen this?

Support nVIDIA SLI Technology
+12V1 18A
+12V2 18A
+12Vtotal 34A

thought you would enjoy it, lol

also, what do you think about the agpb that fasteddie is running?

i think i am going to go ahead and get it, the two documented instances of multimeters used to test the rails showed they were stable and its less then half price of most comparible psus and the 12v should support 2 6800s without a problem.

Yeah, the specs look good. I don't know anything about the company. Fast Eddie doesn't seem to be having any problems. I,m sure it will work fine.

Eddie noted that that PSU has been approved by Tyan for use with their SERVER BOARDS. If it was anything less than top notch, it wouldn't have gotten their stamp. I'm sure that A-GPB is a beast of a power supply.

 

[FastEddie]

The A-GPB 500W is rock solid, quiet with the 120mm ceramic fan, and I've seen no fluctuation in any of the rails. Excellant psu even if it cost twice what Newegg is getting for it. It's a heavie duty unit too---weighs over twice what your run of the mill psu does. I put up a short note up at Newegg so anyone looking for a psu to use in A8N SLI would know they don't have to spend $200 bux for a decent unit.

 

[pudds]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The OCZ guy is full of it. I know of 2 people who have RMA'd 600w powerstreams. And he is continuing the misconception that 2 rails @ 18a = total available amps of 36a. A dual rail PS is essentially two smaller PS's in one box, nothing in the box generates 36a. 2 x 18a = 18a not 36a.

Man I'm getting tired of posting this and half the people don't want to beleive it. I posted on one thread "Anybody sucessfully running 2 video cards and a dual rail PS post here". I got several "I heard" and "supposedly" or "the tech guy said", but not one person posted that they were sucessfully running two cards with a dual rail PS. And I personally know of 6 people who have RMA'd there dual rail PS's and their problems went away immediately.

Just quoting what he said, the guys actually very reliable hes one of the main techs on the ocz forums and is one of the big overclockers on xstreamsystems with a lot of respect. FWIW i bought the 520w instead of the 600w because i didn't fancy dual rails either


The thread is here http://www.bleedinedge.com/for...hp?t=6951&page=1&pp=15
Would love to see you give em what for

 

[GuitarDaddy]

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The OCZ guy is full of it. I know of 2 people who have RMA'd 600w powerstreams. And he is continuing the misconception that 2 rails @ 18a = total available amps of 36a. A dual rail PS is essentially two smaller PS's in one box, nothing in the box generates 36a. 2 x 18a = 18a not 36a.

Man I'm getting tired of posting this and half the people don't want to beleive it. I posted on one thread "Anybody sucessfully running 2 video cards and a dual rail PS post here". I got several "I heard" and "supposedly" or "the tech guy said", but not one person posted that they were sucessfully running two cards with a dual rail PS. And I personally know of 6 people who have RMA'd there dual rail PS's and their problems went away immediately.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Just quoting what he said, the guys actually very reliable hes one of the main techs on the ocz forums and is one of the big overclockers on xstreamsystems with a lot of respect. FWIW i bought the 520w instead of the 600w because i didn't fancy dual rails either


The thread is here http://www.bleedinedge.com/for...hp?t=6951&page=1&pp=15
Would love to see you give em what for



:beer:

 

[pudds]

edit : http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6951

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: pudds
edit : http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6951

I think the picture in SteveOCZ's avitar speaks volumes.
He's thinking with the wrong head and plus he works for OCZ whats he going to say? Yeah, our new power supply doesn't work well for SLI. :Q probabally wouldn't get a reserved parking spot for that one.

 

[FastEddie]

Originally posted by: Auxano

"Anybody successfully running 2 video cards and a dual rail PS post here".

GuitarDaddy, I missed that post. Here is what I am running.

MOTHERBOARD - ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

MEMORY - OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 Dual (512MBx2)

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3200+

VIDEO - 2X BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC 256MB in SLI

PRIMARY DRIVES - 2X Seagate 160GB Barracuda 7200.7 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, In RAID-0

AUXILIARY DRIVE ? WD 120GB IDE 7200 RPM 8MB Cache

OPTICAL - NEC 16X Double Layer DVD, Model ND-3500

PSU - Enermax Noisetaker 600Watt 'EG701P-VE SFMA' Retail

This has been running for a couple of weeks so far. No hardware issues for me. I also changed out the chipset fan to a Zalman passive cooler.

I don?t know why, but I have not had any issues. I was going to go with the OCZ but I got a good deal on the Enermax. My 12V rail is very steady and the Enermax stays cool (warm) in tempature.

PS. Your early posts on A8N were very helpful to me as I got my rig going about a week or so after yours.

I'd be interested to hear if you've tried any overclocking with the above configuration.

 

[Solutions]

Originally posted by: Auxano

"Anybody successfully running 2 video cards and a dual rail PS post here".

I don?t know why, but I have not had any issues. I was going to go with the OCZ but I got a good deal on the Enermax. My 12V rail is very steady and the Enermax stays cool (warm) in tempature.

Same as ^. Running dual 6800Us on an Enermax EG01AX-VE(W) with no problems so far.